Great Boulder Resources (ASX:GBR) has received heritage clearance to undertake exploration at its Mt Venn copper-nickel-cobalt prospect within its Yamarna Project in Western Australia.
The heritage clearance means Great Boulder can now finalise planning for its maiden exploration campaign at Mt Venn.
This will be the first exploration undertaken at Mt Venn since the initial assays of up to 1.7% copper plus nickel and cobalt in March this year.
Stefan Murphy, managing director, commented: “While there is no prescribed timetable for receiving our entry permit, we understand that the process is likely to take a further 2-4 weeks to complete, meaning we anticipate our field activities will start in the second half of July.
“We have completed the technical review and we now intend to run parallel electromagnetic and geochemistry programs so that we can start reverse circulation and diamond drilling as soon as possible.”
Yamarna Project
The Yamarna project is one of Great Boulder’s five exploration gold projects in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
It consists of six granted exploration licences and one granted prospecting license.
It is held in joint venture with EGMC and Great Boulder can earn a 75% interest in the project through a minimum expenditure of $2 million in exploration over five years.
Yamarna hosts the Mt Venn Igneous Complex, where recent drilling has established the presence of a mineralised magmatic sulphide system.
Next steps
The exploration program will commence once Great Boulder receives its Aboriginal Reserve entry permit
Great Boulder anticipates field activities will commence in the second-half of July.
In preparation for field activities, Great Boulder has engaged Newexco to design and implement the ground-based electromagnetic (EM) survey.
Following a technical review of Mt Venn, an aircore geochemical program has been planned to cover the entire 9 kilometre-long Mt Venn intrusive complex.
It is anticipated that the EM and geochemistry programs will take circa 4-6 weeks to complete after receiving entry permits, with reverse circulation drilling to commence on priority targets soon after.
Analysis
The permitting and fieldwork underway is progressing towards the reverse circulation drilling, which is ultimately going to be able to reveal any potential the Mt Venn intrusion holds.
Previous exploration targeting an EM anomaly by Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR) has showed evidence of a sulphide system.
Two distinct lenses of higher grade mineralisation were identified in a drill hole:
- 6 metres at 0.54% copper, 0.08% nickel and 244 ppm cobalt from 67 metres depth; and
- 3 metres at 0.85% copper, 0.12% nickel and 360 ppm cobalt from 85 metres depth.
The strong results came from the edge of a 2 kilometre long electromagnetic anomaly at Mt Venn.
The assays showed that bedrock copper-nickel sulphide mineralisation is the source of the large electromagnetic conductor.
The centre of the conductor is located 450 metres south of the drill hole and is a priority target of the upcoming exploration program.
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